Declutter Your Home Office

It’s so easy to collect, well – stuff... Take a look around your home office now – go on, right now! I bet that amongst all the vital bits and pieces that you really do need to run your brilliant home business there are lots of things that just fall in to the category of ‘stuff that you think you might need one day.’

It’s not just you – we all do it. As I’m sitting here writing this at my home office desk, I’m surrounded by a huge heap of papers (not to do with my start-up business, just other household detritus), a heap of my son’s toys that he occasionally plays with whilst I’m hard at it and a basket full of odds and ends that I haven’t touched in several months (I know this ‘cos I can write my name in the dust that’s collected on the top…).

Are any of these having a positive effect on my business entrepreneurial skills? No! They’re cluttering up not only my workspace but my head as well – it’s impossible to think and work freely when you’re surrounded by mess.

That’s it – I’ve had enough! I’m decluttering – right now. And I want you (yes, you!) to do it with me. Come on, you’ll feel loads better!

1.Clear Your Desk

It’s all right, I’m not telling you to throw it all away – you just need to get some perspective here on what you actually need in your home office, and what is just unnecessary junk. So start with your desk – and take everything off it. Paperwork, pens, invoices, bills, that picture of your cat – everything.

Now what do you actually need to hand whilst you are sat at your desk? Your computer, a pen and notebook for jotting down inspirational ideas for your business start-up whilst you work and a beautiful coaster for your well-deserved coffee breaks.

All your other paperwork should have a specific place to live. Buy a multi-tiered inbox tray and label it ‘Currently working on’, ‘Pending’ and ‘Long term’ (or whatever suits you) and divide everything into that.

Pens and other stationery items can be kept in organisers either on your desk, or even better in a dedicated drawer, so that you can always easily find sellotape, staplers, marker pens etc. when you need them.

If you want a blast of retro cool then we've just discovered this fab desk tidy and pen holder from Back 2 School - perfect for keeping your home office desk tidy and looking good at the same time!

The vintage desk tidy has three useful compartments inside - just the right size for pens, rulers, sticky notes and other odds and ends that you need to hand whilst working on your start-up business.

All you need to do is get biro all over your shirt, and it will be just like being back in the classroom!

The pen holder would look just great on your home office desk - and whilst most of us do much more typing than writing nowadays, any writing you actually do will feel so much better, knowing you are popping your pens back in to this stylish accessory!

The pen holder is also available from Red5.co.uk, this time for £9.95.

Oh, go on then – put the picture of your cat back on if you really want to!

2.Open Up Your Workspace

It’s no good having a tidy desk if the rest of the room is a tip; you want to be able to march purposefully into your home office every morning, not trip over the hoover that’s been left in the doorway.

Sensible storage is your answer – the piles of books on the floor are just crying out to be stacked neatly on shelves. Your old freelancer invoices which are currently filling old boxes to the brim over by the window are yearning to be popped inside a filing cabinet. So make them happy and get them off the floor. Bet you’d forgotten the colour of your home office carpet, hadn’t you?!

3.Free Your Furniture

If you’re lucky enough to have room for a sofa or armchair in your home office then ensure that it is not used as a dumping ground for more ‘stuff’. Get rid of anything that’s perched on it in place of you.

Sitting for too long in one place is not healthy creatively, so if you don’t need to use your computer for a while, get up and slouch into your comfy chair with a notebook for fresh home business perspectives and ideas.

4.Review Your View

It may not be a snow-capped mountain or a sandy beach that is visible out of your home office window, but if you have any kind of view at all then you should be able to at least see it from your desk. Again, it gives you a break from staring at your screen, and may just inspire you one of these days.

Windowsills become another place to put things (old tea mugs, half-eaten apples, yet more books and paperwork) so sweep them off (into their new, decluttered homes, not on to the floor), polish the glass and look outside. Ok, it might just be the number 59 bus you can see going past, but any view is better than none!

5.Cordies Cable Tidy

How many times have you had to go crawling under your desk for a cable that has fallen off? Or scramble around the back of your PC to grab the bundle of cables before they disappear into never-never-behind-your-desk-land ...

Help is here!

The Cordies Cable Tidy is the perfect way to ensure your desk is always looking its best.

Trailing wires are not cool, which is why these Metal Cordies are a must have accessory for your home or office. Each has four slots for small cables, the sort you'd fine attached to a USB charger or a pair of headphones.

Internal weights are used to keep the cable tidy steady and it's been made to the highest possible standard.

Keep Up The Clutterless Momentum

Now you've done all the hard work and you are ready to hit your home business with clarity and flowing thought, don't slip back into your old habits.

Once you’ve decluttered, tidied, sorted and filed, keep doing it!

All new additions to your home office should be immediately put in place next to their neat and tidy friends immediately, not just thrown on to the desk again, with a view to ‘doing it later’ because you won’t – and then you’ll have to read this article all over again, won’t you?!